Climber question.

[Chuffedas]

Hi all,
Yay, spring is here......

Right, Between my neighbour and I we have a HUGE line of evergreens that drive us both mad.
We will be removing it.
There is a 4-5 foot wall and then we will put a fence up to maintain privacy to about 8 foot.

Now, the fun bit.
We thought we would leave the trunks and use them as a basis to grow climbers up.
Currently the trunks are a good 20 foot high.

Now the problem.
The climbers will need to be on the shady (north facing) side of the wall/fence.
(That is where the soil is.)

So they will have a struggle for the first 8 foot then be in blazing glory.
So I need something that grows taller than 8 foot.
Would like a variety of them if possible.
The length of the section is about 25 foot.

Perfect world wish list:
(Doubt I will achieve all of this, but in rough order of priority)
Perrennial
Flowers at different times for insects.
Provide something for birds?
Evergreen?
Easy to care for. (Happy to run a hedge trimmer over it.)

I have got as far as clematis and honeysuckle.
Any other thoughts?

Thanks

[dogsbody]

OK, so I am not the expert on what groes shady etc., clematis you have mentioned already, Montana is a large variety. Also Jasmine might work, expecially if you get the winter variety too. Don't forget some (controlled) Ivy for evergreen effect and the insects will proliferate in there.

I am sure others will be along shortly with a longer list - have fun, and don't forget the bird / bat boxes!

[WendyC]

Can't quite picture what you are intending to do but if it was me I'd get rid of the trees entirely. How are you going to get the climbers to attach themselves to the tree trunks? If you are looking for self clinging you've got ivy, Virginia creeper and climbing hydrangea. The fence on top of the low wall could be trellis which the climbers would happily scramble through and would only have 4/5 feet on the shady side to start with. Clematis like a cool root run so you're on to a winner already. Honeysuckle is a woodland plant so would like the shady root run too.

[Chuffedas]

Great stuff guys.
This is just what I was hoping for.
I shall run some wires across between the trunks.
They are fairly close together. About four foot apart.
We will remove all of the foliage. The reason we are leaving the trunks is purely to grow some good stuff up them. We might have 20 foot high honeysuckle.... I would never set 20 foot high posts into the ground.

Good call about the boxes. Hadn't even thought of that. I have some bird boxes elsewhere, but these will hopefully be surrounded by foliage, lovely. We are leaving a section up where birds seem to like nesting.

Wow, winter jasmine.... good call.

OK, maybe the shady start will not be as much of an issue I thought it might be.... great.
I know ivy is great for insects and birds, I am just worried it will bully other stuff out of the way.
But as you say, perhaps if i 'prune' it well enough and keep it in one section.

I appreciate your comments, thanks.

[Paulieb]

Two shrubs that wont get to 20 feet but will provide evergreen colour and berries for birds are a mahonia and an aucuba japonica. They'll grow pretty big over time or you can prune them to keep them under control and keep a bit of whape if necessary.

But they would mainly provide a bit of interest at eye level if the climbers were to grow tall.

My other favourite plant is a Leycestaria formosa. Got one at the front of my house, east facing, with has thick green stems all year round nice foliage and pretty flowers and is currently over 10ft tall.

[Chuffedas]

Nice suggestions, thanks.
This is going to be great.
It has to go on hold for now as I thought that the only thing nesting was a pair of pigeons at one end.
(A bit we will leave)
There is another nest at the other end now.
So we will wait for them to finish.